Business ProfileforAmeritech Financial

On November 19, 2020,  the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) entered into an agreement with Brandon Frere and his companies, American Financial Benefits Center, also doing business as AFB, AF Student Services, Ameritech Financial, and Financial Education Benefits Center. Case # 18-cv-00806.

According to the FTC’s 2018 complaint, Brandon Frere and his companies sent personalized mail to consumers that falsely claimed they were eligible for federal programs that would permanently reduce their monthly debt payments to a fixed low amount or result in total loan forgiveness.

The FTC alleged that Frere and his companies charged up to $800 in illegal up-front fees to enroll consumers in a federal loan assistance program. They also charged consumers $100-$1,200 advance fee for enrollment in a “financial education” program, followed by ongoing $49-$99 monthly membership fees for the life of the loan, which typically is 10-25 years.

The order bans Frere and his companies from providing debt relief services and prohibits them from violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule.

In December 2018, the Department of Justice filed a criminal complaint against Frere and his companies. In December 2019, Frere pleaded guilty to two counts of wire and mail fraud, and agreed to forfeit funds.

In July 2020, a U.S. district court judge sentenced Frere to 42 months in prison and required him to read all victim impact statements submitted to the court.

A restitution hearing will be held on December 18, 2020.

On July 27, 2020, Brandon Frere was sentenced to 42 months in prison following his guilty plea to wire fraud and money laundering charges. Case #3:18-mj-71724-SK.

According to the plea agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office Northern District, between January of 2014 and November of 2018, Frere used the companies to market student loan document preparation services for borrowers who wished to apply for programs through the Department of Education.  Frere targeted potential customers who were seeking federal loan forgiveness, loan consolidation, and reduced-payment programs.  When Frere’s companies sold consumers document preparation services, they also sold them an optional membership in a financial education benefits program. The so-called benefits program provided the opportunity to customers to sign up for services such as LifeLock identity theft protection and roadside assistance.  

Frere admitted he instructed his employees to follow misleading sales scripts and to employ deceptive sales tactics so that people would enroll for services without fully understanding what they were paying for. Further, Frere admitted he instructed enrollment associates not to present the benefits program as an optional or additional service to the document preparation service; this way, consumers would purchase the benefits packages without knowing they were doing so.

Frere instructed his employees (1) to make false statements concerning the companies’ ability to deliver fixed payments for the life of student loans and loan forgiveness under alternative repayment plans; (2) to engage in enrollment practices that improperly inflated a consumers’ family size to reduce their prospective payments under federal alternative repayment plans (and therefore make it appear to the consumer that their monthly payments would be lower than what they would have been if the family size were not inflated); and (3) to hide the monthly fees that consumers would pay for a purportedly optional financial education benefits program while leading victims to believe that the benefits program was already included in the document preparation service.  

Frere also admitted that in order to conceal the proceeds of his wire fraud scheme, in 2015, he began transferring to overseas bank accounts that he controlled large sums of the funds that he had received through the scheme.  He continued this process in August 2017, after he became involved in litigation with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) and became concerned the FTC or a court might be able to seize the proceeds of his fraud.  The FTC filed a civil complaint in February 2018 against Frere and his companies in federal court in Oakland. (Federal Trade Commission v. American Financial Benefits, et al., Case No. CV 18-00806-SBA).

Frere was charged on October 1, 2019, with one count of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and one count of money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(B).  Frere pleaded guilty to both counts.  

In addition to the prison term, Frere is to serve an additional term of 36 months of supervised release.  

Restitution hearing to be held on October 16, 2020.